Is the Client the Enemy?

Can you believe designers actually read books like this?

Books about how to deal with clients. How to get our voice heard. How to get work to the finish line. Seeing books like this, you might think that designers consider the client the enemy… That obviously can’t be the case right? After all, the customer is always right, and design is inherently a customized service, right?

Clients might be surprised how many times they are looked at as the enemy by designers. Literally anything that stands in the way of a successful project is the enemy. It’s the not so quiet secret of our industry. There are stereotypical client statements like: “Can you make the logo bigger?”, “What if we try it in blue?”, “Can we see a couple different options?” These are old weathered jokes among designers. The kind of jokes that eventually cease to be funny as they find accuracy.

So why would designers ever poke fun at the people who are paying their wages? Why would there be anything funny about a client asking for something of someone in a service based industry? It’s a question of framing.

K e r n i n g

Cool little nugget about where the word kerning comes from: “The word kerning is a cognate of corner (that is, the two words have a common root). In the days when all type was cast metal, a corner was notched to a consistent height on one or both sides of a letter-piece. Such notched pieces […]

Used Website For Sale.

Wouldn’t it be nice? You’ve spent thousands of dollars developing, and maintaining a website, but now it’s starting to feel old… Or maybe you need new features, or lots of new content. Wouldn’t it be great to get some of your original investment back? Take heart. If your developer has used modern standards to develop […]

Vague RFP’s don’t help anyone.

Let’s use websites to prove a point.

Scenario 1:
Client: How much for a new website?
Designer #1: Hmmm. Depends on what you’re looking for.
Client: Just base it off of what you would like to do for us.
Designer: #1 How about $250,000?
Client: I don’t have that much.
Designer: #1 How much do you have?
Client: I don’t want to tell you because I’m afraid I’ll be taken advantage of. I guess we can’t work together…

Scenario 2:
Client: How much for a new website?
Designer #2: Hmm. How about $5,000?
Client: Sold!

Weird huh? But unfortunately it happens time and time again. From the two examples above, can you tell which designer would have done the better job? Can you tell who would have been easier to work with? Basing the decision off of cost assumes something that is unequivocally wrong; that the end products will be equal. Face it, every agency wants you to spend a million dollars on your project. It would give them room to do really exciting groundbreaking design that flips and twists and wows everyone. Just because they asked for it doesn’t mean they should be penalized. They might be able to do something great within your actual budget as well. Deciding things by a blind bid:

Get With It. But Only if You’re Sincere.

If your business is not social networking and tweeting, and blogging, and etc. you might as well just close up shop.

Ok. Not really. In fact, for many business it’s needless distraction that can fragment an image, and a brand. There’s so much talk these days about “taking advantage” of social media sites that it can be overwhelming. Whenever there’s a buzz about a new technology or technique to catch an advertising ear it seems to turn into the new snake oil over night. Since people are finally getting wise to how SEO often is a blatant scam, it seems it’s time to move on to the next big thing. Which seems to be social apps like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc.

We get quizzed all the time by clients; “Should we be on MySpace?”, “Should we be Twittering?” The answer is different for different industries and companies. First let’s weigh the good.